What’s your ultimate reef tank goal? While you may hold unique desires, vibrant color and solid covering is the shared goal by most aquarists.

The quest to accomplish this goal is what began my journey into the world of algae. Unlike popular belief, not all algae is bad. In fact, there’s one species that’s actually necessary for the health and vitality of your underwater world.

Can anyone else vouch for the product she was pushing at the end? "Purple up"
I am always skeptical of potential advertisements that disguise themselves and informative articles.

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Hi Kareem and welcome to Reef2Reef. As I've said in the article PurpleUp is a good kickstarter but there are several different ways to seed the coralline algae, just skip this step if you don't trust the source of the information, no one is pushing you to use this product I've just shared with the readers what I'm using and my friends. We do a huge amount of research before giving any advice about additives or other products and everything advised was tested in our own reef tanks. Not always advertising = a trap. Sometimes clicking an advertising link help people like us to continue doing what they love and continue writing useful information for the community.

Thanks for the article -- I am always excited to read and learn more. I am looking to have more coralline come in to help keep GHA and other nuisance at bay

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I'm sure it will help to fight the algae, Vibrant is a nice thing as well, but it's a different story! I've also noticed one thing that I didn't mention in the article. When you buy zoas and you see some coralline on the frag plug, in my opinions, it's always better to scrape it off before putting in your tank, because zoas need to adjust to the new system and only then they'll start growing and coralline will adjust much faster and will cover that plug faster as well, coralline will slow the growth of zoas, they are not so strong vs coralline as SPS corals. I'm sure many of you noticed how SPS attack coralline around them to continue encrusting, well zoas are not so aggressive. So it's better to help them and to remove it before it will complicate their life.

I'm sure it will help to fight the algae, Vibrant is a nice thing as well, but it's a different story! I've also noticed one thing that I didn't mention in the article. When you buy zoas and you see some coralline on the frag plug, in my opinions, it's always better to scrape it off before putting in your tank, because zoas need to adjust to the new system and only then they'll start growing and coralline will adjust much faster and will cover that plug faster as well, coralline will slow the growth of zoas, they are not so strong vs coralline as SPS corals. I'm sure many of you noticed how SPS attack coralline around them to continue encrusting, well zoas are not so aggressive. So it's better to help them and to remove it before it will complicate their life.

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hi yuliya. Im going to keep this as short as possible. I had a 30 gallon reef at work for 3 years. Its mostly softies, just a couple small lps. Everything grew very well, but no coralline at all(i have lots of rock with coralline already on it) My work uses kold steril water, and not rodi. Kold steril does not remove phosphates, among other things. The tank always had a bit of hair algae, that pretty much stayed on the back glass. Well, i have taken the tank home now, and started using rodi water, and i have been changing a lot of water to get that old water out of the system. I have a ton of purple up (work bought it), but i dont want to dose. I feel it isnt needed as i do not have a lot of hard corals. I am using red sea coral pro salt, which has high levels of cal, alk, mag etc. I figure ill do 20% water changes weekly with that. For lighting, i have a 4 bulb t5 fixture. 3 ati blue plus, and 1 purple plus. Lots of blue light. Lots of flow as well. Ive only had the tank at home for a week, but its definitely getting high quality water etc now. Do you think my coralline will finally spread now that things are improving?

hi yuliya. Im going to keep this as short as possible. I had a 30 gallon reef at work for 3 years. Its mostly softies, just a couple small lps. Everything grew very well, but no coralline at all(i have lots of rock with coralline already on it) My work uses kold steril water, and not rodi. Kold steril does not remove phosphates, among other things. The tank always had a bit of hair algae, that pretty much stayed on the back glass. Well, i have taken the tank home now, and started using rodi water, and i have been changing a lot of water to get that old water out of the system. I have a ton of purple up (work bought it), but i dont want to dose. I feel it isnt needed as i do not have a lot of hard corals. I am using red sea coral pro salt, which has high levels of cal, alk, mag etc. I figure ill do 20% water changes weekly with that. For lighting, i have a 4 bulb t5 fixture. 3 ati blue plus, and 1 purple plus. Lots of blue light. Lots of flow as well. Ive only had the tank at home for a week, but its definitely getting high quality water etc now. Do you think my coralline will finally spread now that things are improving?

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Hi! It will for sure with time, but if you want to speed up the process take a small knife and scrape the coralline off from the rocks in the easily accessible spots, so scrapped particles can travel in your system. Like this, you'll help it to spread. Good luck!

Hi! It will for sure with time, but if you want to speed up the process take a small knife and scrape the coralline off from the rocks in the easily accessible spots, so scrapped particles can travel in your system. Like this, you'll help it to spread. Good luck!

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i have done this. We have a reef at work with coralline so thick on the walls, that you can peel it with your fingers. The other day i did that, crushed it up, and dumped it into my tank. I constantly look closely at my powerheads for any signs of it, as it always seems to start there first.

Hi! It will for sure with time, but if you want to speed up the process take a small knife and scrape the coralline off from the rocks in the easily accessible spots, so scrapped particles can travel in your system. Like this, you'll help it to spread. Good luck!

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well, after only 3 weeks of using rodi and the coral pro salt, my powerhead has little purple dots popping up on it. seems that things are happening.

i hope so. I noticed the dots a week ago, but gave it another week just to be sure. They have gotten slightly bigger, and im pretty certain i see it on the back glass near the powerhead as well. Ill update again in a few weeks.